


Hugging Nick Fury (and living to tell the tale)

by pretzelduck



Series: Pretzelduck's Darcy Lewis April Challenge Stories [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 05:43:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3680124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pretzelduck/pseuds/pretzelduck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A bad day for SHIELD leads Darcy to doing something more than a little rash and reckless.  And she can't even blame Clint for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hugging Nick Fury (and living to tell the tale)

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently there are going to be more of these?! Thank you so much for all the kudos and comments on the first one! I really appreciate it. I don't know I'll end up writing every day this month but we'll see what happens.

It was a bad day.

Darcy could tell the moment she entered the building that something had gone wrong. SHIELD buildings weren't the happiest place on Earth but today, this one was as far from Disneyland as you could get. Douglas, the agent at the door (who still owed her fifty bucks from last week's poker game) hadn't even snuck a peak at her chest which never happened. And Cartwright the requisitions agent didn't even threaten to kill her once. It wasn't Darcy's fault that she was responsible for ordering new equipment for Jane and Jane had a bad habit of blowing up equipment (for Science!) but apparently Cartwright never got the whole "don't kill the messenger" lesson. Maybe he did since Darcy wasn't dead yet. Whatever. Dropping off copies of Team Science! progress reports (for an organization that was obsessed with the latest and greatest tech, SHIELD was seriously stuck on paper documents being filed in triplicate), Darcy finally got bits and pieces about what had happened. Classified stuff or not, agents were as gossipy as a bunch of high school girls. An operation that those in the know were proud of (covertly saving lives instead of overtly taking them) had gone wrong and now innocent people were dead. Not a single agent had died but it was obvious to her that that wasn't the point to the people in this building. For a bunch of iPod-stealing, jack-booted thugs, they had their moments.

All she had to do was head up to the public relations office and sign off on a few science-y news releases related to Jane's work (they'd given up on getting Jane out of the lab and let Darcy sign as her proxy) and she could head back to the Tower. She was still seriously annoyed that the elevators in this building didn't have any horrible musak to complain about. Surrounded by people who had literally taken classes on torture, you'd think they wouldn't forget the Odin-awful musak. Where was Greensleeves when you needed it? 

The elevator came to a stop (which was irritating in itself – she wanted to go home) and in walked the Eyepatched Badass himself. It wasn't the first time that she'd been alone with Nick Motherfucking Fury (that was his middle name and no one would ever convince her otherwise) but this was the first time that Darcy had ever seen him looking like he wasn't about to go choke the shit out of someone. He wasn't all tense and ready to strike like some really pissed off wild animal. Usually when she saw him, Fury was full of fury and sarcasm. She liked to call him Furious Fury just to see his one eye twitch menacingly. It was fun. 

"Lewis."

And no exasperated "why didn't I just have her Men-in-Blacked" sigh? The man needed some serious TLC and not the Say Yes to the Dress channel, either. She'd seen how Tony, Steve, and the others could be when a mission didn't go according to plan but there was something different about seeing that same despondency hanging over the director of SHIELD. It hurt her even worse somehow. 

An idea popped into her head as soon as the elevator door started to close. It was a crazy, stupid idea that was probably going to get her killed and she couldn't even blame Clint for it. But a quick, probably not too stealthy glance out of the corner of her eye later and Darcy knew she was going to do it. He just looked so damn sad. And she spent enough time around the spyssasins that she knew that if she could see the hurt, it was either really bad or Nick Fury maybe kinda sorta trusted her a bit. Or both. Which was more than a little brain-melty.

One short step to her left and Darcy reached underneath that ridiculous (but oh so cool) coat of his and wrapped her arms around him. She was hugging Nick Fury and the only thought going through her head was _please don't kill me with your pinky finger_. A heartbeat later and that thought was joined by _why am I not dead yet?_ On the second heartbeat, Darcy decided that thinking was highly overrated. Somewhere between beats three and four, she realized that he smelled really, really good. Like some sort of should-be-illegal combination of leather and badassitude. She felt one of his arms move and braced herself for being yanked away but the elevator just stopped between floors. He shifted again and before Darcy could figure out how to react, one of his hands was lightly pressed against the middle of her back and he was pulling her just a little bit closer. Holding her just a little bit a tighter as she was not quite literally engulfed in arms and leather. 

Darcy gave up trying to count heartbeats and accepted the fact that both her heart and time had stopped. Her entire world was reduced to this single point in time. She adjusted her head just slightly so it was resting against his chest and felt each breath he took. And damn, the man was tall. She felt so short like this. From her position, Darcy could both feel and hear the sigh that escaped his lips. It wasn't exasperated, though. It was more along the lines of a "thank Odin, I really needed this" sigh. Darcy couldn't help but wonder when the last time someone had hugged him was. The thought made her involuntarily squeeze him tighter and it seemed to remind him that he was Nick Fury and he needed to be serious at all times. He stepped back so he was on the opposite side of the elevator (and out of arms reach). The look on his face was universal, though – what the fuck just happened.

Since she knew that they weren't going anywhere until he got an explanation, Darcy tried to think of a reason for hugging him that stayed far away from her accidently spilling her guts out. Because being in Nick Fury's arms? That felt great. Like really, really great. Not just safe and warm and cozy (even though it was definitely all of those). It was like it scratched an itch she didn't even knew she had. Darcy was aware of the fact that she thought he was extremely attractive (older than her/wears leather/kicks ass ticked a lot of her boxes) and that she really enjoyed trading wit and sarcasm with him. But this warm feeling spreading from her toes? Completely new and completely paradigm shifting. Shit. Thankfully, useless trivia came to her rescue once again. And Jane said watching all those episodes of Jeopardy was pointless.

"Did you know that today is a Hug a Newsman Day? And while yes, you are not technically a newsman, you do have to give briefings and reports are kinda news-y. Right? Besides, it's not like I'm gonna run into Barbara Walters today."

The director of SHIELD stared at her like he was trying to figure what exactly made her tick. Which, if he really wanted to know that, all had to do was ask. It was chocolate, Tumblr, a rocking playlist, and a really good pen. If he was challenging her to a staring contest, then it really wasn't fair. He could totally be blinking underneath that eyepatch and she'd never know it. And that was cheating. Besides, how was she not dead? She'd hugged him and still had all of her limbs attached to her body. 

"Do you even have a filter, Lewis?"

Darcy was kinda insulted. Of course she had a filter. She just chose not to use it most of the time. What was the point, anyway? Besides, that was his response? Their usual annoyed and amused banter was a lot of fun. But bantering with him right now? After feeling his arms around her and with that warm feeling travelling all the way up to her stomach, making it kinda hard to breathe? She wasn't sure she wanted to. Summoning up her inner Natasha, Darcy looked at him as coolly as she could and did her best to keep her voice as even as possible.

"I have work to do, Director."

His one eye twitched a little bit and Darcy didn't recognize the slight expression on his face. She knew what Fury looked like irritated and angry and vaguely amused (and now hurt, her brain reminded her) but she couldn't quite place this one. She definitely wasn't sure what to think when he stepped closer to her and she didn't know if she should be relieved or frustrated that he restarted the elevator. For a handful of seconds, they just stood there, staring at each other. Darcy felt the elevator slow down and noticed that it was irritating stopping at his floor not the one she needed. Figures. And Fury didn't even say a single word as the doors opened and he walked out.

Men. Darcy debated whether or not she should chase after him. She needed answers, damnit. Seriously, how was she not dead? But that warm feeling had made her all fuzzy and she just really, really wanted to get out of this elevator so she could finish her errands and go home. She'd confront him on a different day, she decided. All that hugging and that weird look were definitely not going to be forgotten. 

****

Sitting down at his desk, Nick keyed in his password to his computer and started the process of deleting the footage from the elevator from all of the security systems. And the back-ups. And the back-ups of the back-ups. He kept one copy on his personal hard drive, though. And if he watched it on other days when things went wrong (to remind himself of a moment when they'd gone right), it was nobody's business but his own. 

 

-fin-


End file.
